Chester County Book Co. may have a future yet

After over a quarter-century at its West Goshen Shopping Center location, Chester County Book and Music Co. will close its doors within the next month.

But, and here’s the reason we see the liquid on the way up instead of down, owner Kathy Simoneaux said that although the store must be vacated by Feb. 4, a new incarnation could be on the horizon. “We are looking at a couple of locations, but nothing is signed yet, so I can’t really say much,” Simoneaux told the Daily Local News last week. “If we relocate, it’ll probably be later in the year, maybe in a few months. So we’re currently trying to sell down our inventory so we don’t have to store it, and we’re running a sale until the end.”

Simoneaux announced the planned closing in July, the culmination of a transformed marketplace. “This was an inevitable situation. It started with Amazon over 10 years ago. E-readers affect us to some degree, but it hasn’t had nearly the effect of Amazon with its pricing and selection,” she said.

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But after the closing announcement was made, Simoneaux said, she couldn’t believe the community response. “It totally turned my head around,” Simoneaux exclaimed. “I had pretty much decided that when we closed the doors here that there was no future in it, but the response was just so heartfelt and overwhelming. I had to reconsider. After crunching the numbers with my accountant, it looks like we can make a go of it, but it has to be much smaller.”

We, on the other hand, were not surprised at all by the outpouring of support for the bookstore and its continued operation. Not only because of the quality of the people who have been its devoted customers since Simoneaux and her late husband Bob opened it in the Parkway Shopping Center in the early 1980s, before moving to its current location, but because of the quality of the ownership itself, as well as the staff the Simoneauxs assembled over the years.

Then there is the bookstore itself. The selection appeals to the casual reader as well as the obsessed. It features not only best sellers, but diamonds in the rough, and must read classics. It offered a path to discovery for those who love to turn the pages of a book, but also a helpful and friendly atmosphere to find what one wanted.

The bookstore had to expand with a restaurant and a music section to keep pace with the changing times, and those amenities will be missed when the store reopens. But we are expectant that what truly makes the Chester County Books Co. a jewel in the crown of our home will continue through the years.

“This is an affluent and well-educated community, and they absolutely deserve and need a bookstore,” Simoneaux said. “It was hard for customers, and it became hard for me to imagine this town without a bookstore.”